IE 6 hangs on closing (6)

I am using IE6 on Windows XP. When I close IE, it seems to close but all items on the task bar become inoperable for a few minutes until IE "really" closes. When I look in task manager IE is not in Applicatons but is still in processes. I can speed up the closing by deleting Iexplore.exe in processes, but that's a pain. Anyone have an explanation of what is happening?